Exploring coping strategies in physical education. A qualitative case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Research has shown that students experience less stress in physical education (PE) than in other school subjects; some even find it stress-relieving. Nevertheless, there is a substantial group of students who regularly experience stress in PE. Knowledge of stressors and the attributes of different coping strategies to deal with those stressors helps us to understand where and why some students feel unsafe or threatened while others build their resilience to stressful situations. Little is known about the use of coping strategies in PE in lower secondary school and how they appear in the PE context. Purpose In this article, we aim to explore what coping strategies 9th grade students, aged 14–15, use when facing various contextual stressors within the PE environment. Method This article is based on a single case study. We cumulatively used multiple methodological approaches to address the research question, including observations (seven lessons, n=77), individual interviews with PE teachers (n=2), focus groups with students (five interviews, n=18), and individual interviews with students (n=13) to gain different perspectives and insights into how students may cope during various circumstances in PE. Through reflexive thematic analysis, a broad perspective on students’ coping strategies was identified. Findings The findings highlight the volume and variety of coping strategies used among students in the PE context. Twelve different themes or families of coping were identified within the PE context, in support of the transaction model of stress and coping (Lazarus and Folkman 1984) and the framework of Skinner and Zimmer-Gembeck (2016). Different ways of coping were dependent on the individual appraisals of the situation, available resources, situational conditions and the stressor in question. One coping strategy, e.g. to use excuses, belonged to several families of coping, demonstrating the difficulties in identifying one coping strategy as beneficial to another. Communal coping was further identified to the framework, adding knowledge on the role of fellow students when understanding coping strategies in PE. Conclusion Students use a rich repertoire of coping strategies in PE. Various coping strategies appear, depending on environmental context demands, stressors, appraisal processes, judgments of available resources, and the perception of control over a situation. A cumulative and multi-methodological approach adds nuanced insights to the complex nature of coping strategies in PE, highlighting the need to understand contextual differences in how each student can thrive in situations perceived as stressful.